Growing Pains
by AlwaysInSonder
Summary: "I'm not like a regular dad. I'm a cool dad." OR: Navigating the dating frontier can be tough as a teen; especially when your daddy's Chief of Police. [Two-Shot]


"So Becky said that Aardvark Law was the best for their research on mammalian rights, but I really like Zootopia State for their campus grounds…"

"Sweetheart, you don't go Kanine West when you've got Gazelle. Why are you liking state? You are valedictorian."

His daughter sighed dramatically and he chuckled while she launched into a speech arguing the benefits of a state education versus the university for the 'prey-privileged, bourgeois upper-middle class'.

Nick chewed on the double-supreme Bugga Burger while his daughter chattered on about her college choices. He found his eyes gravitating towards the TV where an episode of Modern Furmily was on. A pair of gay hyenas were comically fighting with a lesbian wolf couple over which of their adopted panda cubs was better. It was not that he wasn't interested in what his daughter had to say, but he knew nothing about college and knew his little kit would figure it out for herself most ways as she always did. He was and will always be proud of her either way.

He never thought he would be one of those fathers. The kind that waved pictures of their kits in front of other mammals' snouts, bragging about their achievements. But he _knew_ his kits were special, so it was different. Thea said her first word – da; when she was only four months old. Robin was three years old when they adopted him and it took him awhile to warm up to his new family; but when he did, he was bribing the pre-schoolers with blueberries into completing his art projects for him. It almost brought a tear to his eye when the teacher had made the concerned phone call to report the issue.

He was so proud of them both. From the moment of her birth, she was in his eyes, a prodigy.

"Dinner, round two!"

His wife calls from the front door, a few more bags of takeout in her paws. His son comes up behind her, carrying even more bags.

"Good Noah, son. You keep eating this much, you're going to end up looking like a hippo."

"Dad! That's _offensive_."

His son only shrugs and helps his mother unpack.

"Mammals' gotta eat. Rick said we're going to be up all night designing the rides for the park."

Nick feels a light punch to his shoulder to his shoulder and his daughter looks up at him, her little nose twitching. He sighs and apologizes giving her a kiss to the forehead.

"Sorry Princess. I promised to respect other predators and work to undo our internalized speciesism."

He catches his wife's eyes at that and she turns away to hide her smile. His eyes start to drift down to the cute, fuzzy wuzzy tail of hers and suddenly he's wondering if it would be too late to cart the kits off to their grandmothers'.

Judy hands him a box of critter crispies and cuddles up to his other side, leaning her head on his shoulder. His son flops down to the couch next to his sister and starts devouring the first stack of burgers in one of his bags. He ignores her cries of disgust as a few fried bugs landed on her PJs.

"Ugh, _Robin_!"

"Bhat?"

His mouth was full of Bugga Burger as he spoke and several more half-chewed bugs landed on his sister.

" _Mom_!"

"Robbie, keep your bugs away from your sister."

Thea chooses then to launch into a speech on Robin then, going on to highlight the cruelties that went on in the bug farming industry.

"…and they pull their bodies off from their feelers! When they're still _alive_."

"Oh, so _that's_ why they're so delicious."

They chuckle as their kits continued to squabble. Nick nuzzles his wife's cheek, accepting one of her lettuce wraps in his mouth.

"Long day in the office?"

"Ugh, you don't know the half of it. Wait. Actually, you do. If I'd known you were under this much pressure as Chief, I would have cut you more slack."

Judy brushes off crumbs from his uniform, loosens his tie for him and snuggles to his side. Nick discreetly wraps his arm around her hips, letting his paw rest over the fluffy cottontail.

"I'm all ears, hun."

"And fluffy ass- ow!"

Judy elbows him hard in the ribs and he nearly chokes on a bug. He only smirks at her warning look and ignores their kits' disgusted looks and barfing noises.

"Pa, seriously?"

"Dad, we can hear _everything_."

* * *

"…and she was saying something about going to State. Didn't she dream about Aardvark since she was like four?"

Nick lounges back against the headboard, watching Judy dress into her sleep clothes. He smiled as she pulled on the weathered police academy shirt of his – she'd always loved that.

Judy only smiled to herself and set his glasses on his bedside table, ignoring his reproachful look at her and his quiet mumble that he didn't need them. The bed dips on one side as she wiggles underneath the sheets with her laptop, moving to make herself comfy on his lap. Nick surrounds his arms around her, squeezing her gently.

"Well, it might have something to do with the fact that a certain someone is in Zootopia State."

Nick froze and felt a certain dread overcome him.

"…You're not talking about Ju-Ju, right?"

He was referring to Judy's goddaughter, Judy, who was also good friends with their daughter.

"Nick, Ju-Ju's in UZ, not Z State. You just met her at her birthday dinner last week."

His eyes narrow then and his chin rests on the top of her head as his wife typed away on her laptop a little too cheerfully. Both Judy and Thea had been acting off recently and he wasn't having it. He didn't become Chief from nothing.

"Darlin', is there a nice, young _buck_ I should know about?"

Judy's typing halts for a moment and he groans.

"I should have seen this coming. Alright, who's the punk I'm going to have to pawcuff?"

Judy rolls her eyes and closes her laptop, setting it away.

"This is exactly why I wanted to wait for a bit before telling you."

"Carrots, you can't keep these things from me!"

"I'm not _keeping_ them from you! I'm just waiting for an appropriate time to tell you before you completely jeopardise our daughter's social life!"

"Who says I _jeopardise_ it? I'm not like a regular dad. I'm a _cool_ dad."

Judy turns around and gives him that **look**. That was when a certain memory of him nearly pointing a tranquilizer dart to a ten-year-old cub who'd given his daughter an innocent kiss to the cheek for her tenth birthday comes to mind. If it weren't for his wife, he would have scarred the child for life right there.

He clears his throat and straightens his back.

"I'll have you know that I was acting on an uncontrollable, biological urge to protect my youngest kit."

"Right."

Judy straddles him then and gives him a massage to his shoulders, he relaxes back onto the headboard and sighs.

"He's a nice enough boy…you like him, actually."

"Wait, I know this brat? Who is it?"

Judy's brows furrows and he just narrows his eyes.

"Don't tell me it's _Rick_. It's bad enough he's got our son, now you're letting him take our daughter? That kid dropped out of college and rides around that joke of a motorcycle made out of stolen parts!"

"I'm surprised _you_ have a problem with that."

Nick looked at his wife incredulously.

"He's ten years older than her!"

"Holy carp, Nick. It's not him. And aren't you a cradle robber yourself?"

She giggles as he pulls a face at her and kisses his frowning snout.

"I'll tell you, only if you promise you won't freak out."

He pinches the bridge of his snout and sighs.

"And I thought the new recruits were giving me a headache. Alright, let it rip."

"…It's Jimmy."

Nick is deathly quiet for several moments and Judy slowly lowers her paws from his shoulders.

"…You don't mean, James… _Savage_?"

"That's the one."

"Son of… Jack. Savage."

Judy gives a curt nod.

He feels blood rush up to his head.

"THEADORA MARIAN! GET YOUR TAIL IN HERE RIGHT THIS INSTANT YOUNG LADY. "

"Oh sweet cheese and crackers…"

* * *

After a night of arguing and their daughter running off with tears and locking herself up in her room, Nick collapses back onto their bed groaning. Of all mammals in the whole of Zootopia, she had to pick the kit of the most conniving, debonair, wife-stealing son of a-

"Well, I hope you're happy with yourself."

Judy returns and with a noticeable wet patch on her shoulder. He sighs heavily and rubs his eyes tiredly.

"She can date whoever she damn well pleases when she isn't living under this roof."

"She's moving out in a few months, genius."

A look of annoyance crosses his features and he pounds his sore back. Judy only sighs and climbs onto their bed, going behind him to massage his shoulders.

"Jimmy's a good boy. He's really different from his father. You know that, Nick."

"I haven't seen him since Thea was still on training wheels!"

He closes his eyes and just focuses on his wife's gentle paws working deftly on his shoulders, easing away the growing tension from them.

"She's still too young."

"She's eighteen and he's twenty. Noah knows she's more mature than you when you were _thirty_."

Nick rolled his eyes at that, but had to chuckle shortly after. It was true.

"But is she really letting go of Aardvark for that _hare_?"

"He's actually a fox-hare hybrid himself, honey."

Nick's brows rose at that. It would explain why his strong, determined Thea was crying over him. They had a lot more in common than he thought.

"His mother died in action. They've always been very private and Jack never really talks much about her, so everyone assumes he just adopted him. And no, of course she isn't going to give up on Aardvark! She was actually just trying to break the topic to you lightly. Z State is only an hour's drive from Aardvark…"

"Long distance, really?"

"Well, he is graduating soon and he's going to be enrolling in Aardvark Graduate School next fall."

Nick groaned at that and tugged at his ears.

"That's even _worse_! He's practically an _adult_ going to graduate school when she's only starting college!"

Judy collapsed down next to him and sighed heavily.

"Look, how about we invite him over to dinner? Then you can size him up for yourself."

He wordlessly pulls his wife tight to his side and spoons her sullenly. For a few minutes, he just allows her sweet, musky scent calm him down while he rearranged his thoughts. His kit was really growing up. With Robin, he'd just shot up like a beansprout sapling out of the blue – towering over his entire family at nineteen. But his son didn't change much – he was too much of a mama's boy. He still liked to fall asleep on his mother's lap in the evenings and still cleaned off his grandmother's baking sheets whenever they visited in the weekends.

But his daughter? She went from bringing him picture books to read to lugging home thick volumes of Zootopia Law, Mammalian Rights essays and debate team trophies. From sitting on his shoulders to being driven to doctor's appointments by her.

Too many things were changing at once. He clutches his wife tighter and Judy, his ever perceptive wife, whispers;

"I miss working with you."

"There's always a spot for you, sweetheart."

There's a quiet begging in his voice and a hopeful look in his eyes. Judy just laughs softly and nips his neck, he groans and melts to her paws.

"I miss it, but ZEMA is in a mess. The ZPD already is doing a brilliant job, _Chief_."

His paws cling to her hips and he gives her a look that would never leave their bedroom.

"Why is that word so sexy when it's coming from you?"

* * *

The next morning, Nick wakes up to the scent of breakfast. He sighs contently and sits up in bed, smiling at the state of undress he was in. How many mammals can boast of an active feral life this long into their marriage?

Judy enters wearing only his shirt, carrying a tray of coffee, toast, bugs and a fruit salad. She climbs onto bed with him and snuggles to his side underneath the sheets.

"Code twelve-twenty-four?"

"Still with Rick."

"Eight, two-nine?"

"Debate."

" _Yes_."

A morning without kits and the house to themselves. It's going to be a perfect weekend.

Judy nuzzles his shoulder and he sighs in satisfaction, taking a sip of his coffee and nearly spitting it out with how bitter it was.

"Dr. Fawn told me your blood glucose was hovering on the side of unhealthy. I've decided to put you under sugar arrest."

He rolls his eyes at that.

"Leave the jokes to me, sweetheart. Now where'd you hide the sugar?"

"I'll just give you all the sugar you need…"

On any other day of the week, Nick would have been more than happy to entertain his wife's corny, forward approach.

"Wait a minute. You're distracting me from something, aren't you?"

"Hmm?"

Judy's pushed the tray aside now and her paws wandered south.

" _Sweetheart_ , give this old fox a break. I should have had a warning when I married a younger bunny. Now, will you tell me why you're distracting me with sex?"

Judy huffs and her nose twitches in annoyance.

"Fine, _Slick_. I invited Jimmy over for dinner tonight."

There goes a good weekend.

* * *

 **A/N: I was watching Modern Family and I couldn't help but wonder what their family dynamics will be like. Modern Family AU needed to happen, so there! Do tell me your thoughts/feelings/suggestions!**


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